Quail

QUAIL HAVE FEELINGS, TOO. About 150 people were expected Saturday at an all-you-can eat wild hog and quail fry at the Maitland Civic Center. The purpose: to swap stories about quail hunting season and to raise money for quail management programs. In other words, programs that help make sure enough of the game birds are around to hunt and breed. The sponsor was Quail Unlimited, a private group dedicated to improving quail habitat and hunting opportunities. Quail season, by the way, ends today.

GLOUCESTER — Over the past 75 years, Blair Farinholt has watched the decline in Gloucester of one of the South's signature game bird species, the Northern bobwhite quail. Now he's hoping to see the Northern bobwhite quail's comeback in Gloucester. Already he has seen a revival of the small game bird on 488 acres of property he manages around Elmington Lane. Several coveys of Northern bobwhite quail are thriving on the land that Farinholt manages specifically with the bird in mind.

Hunting season is officially open, and there is good news for quail hunters. The quail population seems to be as high or better than last season. After last weekend's quail hunting excursion, we noticed a larger number of birds in our two favorite spots. We saw more coveys and more birds per covey than a year ago.Here are some tips for a successful bobwhite season:Find cover you believe holds the birds.We like to hunt thick cover. It's hard hunting and not good for an expensive gun with an unscratched stock, but we've found these areas to have good numbers of quail.

Quail Hollow Club is in the midst of another facelift. Several significant changes are underway that will alter the way the course plays next May when the Wells Fargo Championship returns. More changes are likely in the coming years in advance of the 2017 PGA Championship . Two holes -- Nos.4 and 8 -- are undergoing major changes, and the 11th, 12th and 13th holes are being tweaked. To accommodate a new short-game practice area, the tee on the par-4 fourth hole is being shifted approximately 50 yards to the left and the hole will be lengthened to 508 yards from the championship tee. From the new tees, the hole will play straightaway, eliminating the gentle right to left movement of its former design.

Just when it seemed that environmental concerns had torpedoed plans for a quail-hunt area in the Ocala National Forest, state wildlife officials may have come up with an acceptable compromise.The Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission has modified its plans for a 3,500-acre quail management area in the national forest in a way that may ease Sierra Club concerns over the fate of long-leaf pine and wire grass communities.The proposal aims at minimizing disturbance to the sensitive grasses while providing good quail habitat.

Florida wildlife officials have pulled out of a project to manage a quail-hunting area in the Ocala National Forest, saying there are too many opposing interests involved in the project.The Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission has decided it wants no role in transforming the 3,000-acre Church Lake unit of the national forest into prime quail habitat.''I think we were wasting our time as far as coming up with a plan that would be suitable to other groups with other interests in the area,'' said Frank Smith, GFC wildlife management bureau chief.

GAINESVILLE -- Bill Giuliano, a professor and wildlife specialist in the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, has been monitoring declining quail numbers for two decades. In that time, the northern bobwhite quail population has dropped more than 65 percent. "Locally, there are areas that don't have [quail] anymore," Giuliano said. "Numbers are way down." Giuliano and Jim Selph, director of the UF DeSoto County Extension in Arcadia, are both participating in the Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, a nationwide plan aimed at bringing quail back to 1980 levels.

Lake County quail hunters have endured major losses in quail habitat but still are optimistic.Saturday was opening day. A consensus among hunters checking in with gun shops and Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission check stations is that quail numbers are down in proportion to available habitat.Devastated citrus groves provided adequate cover until they were reforested with pines. Urbanizing citrus groves destroyed viable habitat. The remaining land that will maintain this traditional game bird can be preserved.

Since Nov. 9 when the 1996-'97 quail-hunting season opened, hunters have met with mixed results out in the field.There were 931 quail harvested from Nov. 25 to Dec. 1 in the few remaining areas such as the Bull Creek and other Wildlife Management Areas.This despite the fact much of the Lake County quail cover has been disrupted because of the habitat development for homes and malls.Private areas were available to hunters who were able to gain permission from the owners and from those who gained access to public cover that is leased.

DEAR DOROTHY: At a catered event in Kissimmee I sampled a delicious quail dish. Could you get the recipe? Fenwick Catering handled the food.Laura Jean Freeman ORLANDODEAR LAURA JEAN: Fenwick Catering, which is based in Kissimmee, is a creative outlet for Margaret and Fred Fenwick. It was Margaret who developed the recipe using the technique to retain natural succulence and provide a richly flavored gravy. The quail is best accompanied by plain grits that absorb but do not dominate the delicate sauce.

Quail Hollow Club is in the midst of another facelift. Several significant changes are underway that will alter the way the course plays next May when the Wells Fargo Championship returns. More changes are likely in the coming years in advance of the 2017 PGA Championship . Two holes -- Nos. 4 and 8 -- are undergoing major changes while the 11th, 12th and 13th holes are being tweaked. To accommodate a new short game practice area, the tee on the par-4 fourth hole is being shifted approximately 50 yards to the left and the hole will be lengthened to 508 yards from the championship tee. From the new tees, the hole will play straightaway, eliminating the gentle right to left movement of its former design.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Tiger Woods played a bogey-free first nine holes of his opening round at The Players Championship. It wasn't until the final hole before the turn, though, that he was able to break par. After grinding through eight consecutive pars, Tiger Woods birdied the par-5 ninth at the TPC Sawgrass after blasting a 3-wood approach from 271 yards away to within 18 feet of the flagstick. It marked the first time Tiger Woods had been in red figures since the third hole of his opening round at last week's Quail Hollow Championship.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — To put Sunday's events into perspective, one needs to turn the clock back 48 hours. Rory McIlroy is flirting with a third straight early exit, two shots off the cut line with three holes to play. One birdie isn't enough. An eagle is, though — thanks to a crisp 4-iron at the par-5 seventh that stopped 6 feet from the flagstick. "Most important shot of the year, to be honest," McIlroy recalled. Otherwise, the not-yet-21 pro's weekend is spent beating balls at the TPC Sawgrass.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Billy Mayfair's last tournament win still earns him a note of recognition in golf annals – the only man to defeat Tiger Woods in a PGA Tour playoff. That was in 1998. Now the 23-year veteran can write himself another annotation if he can hold on through 18 more holes of the Quail Hollow Championship – the first Monday qualifier in 24 years to hoist the trophy at the end of the week. "I'm trying not to think about it," Mayfair said after Saturday's 1-under-par 71 actually widened his lead to two shots over Phil Mickelson and Davis Love III. "But obviously [when]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The second step in Tiger Woods' post-scandal chapter turned out to be a short one. Maybe even a step backward. Tiger Woods missed the cut for just the sixth time in his professional career, stumbling to a 7-over-par 79 at the Quail Hollow Championship that left him far down the scoreboard and set a handful of personal worsts. Coupled with yesterday's 74, Woods' two-day total of 9-over 153 was his highest as a pro – one more than when he missed the cut at the 2006 U.S. Open.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Like plenty of PGA Tour veterans, Billy Mayfair loves the Quail Hollow Championship. It's hard to say, though, how many would have gone through the hassle of Monday qualifying to get in. Mayfair did, and so far it's paying off. On a day overshadowed by the struggles and early exit of Tiger Woods, the 43-year-old veteran found himself atop the leaderboard after his second consecutive 4-under-par 68. "Well, I'm very...

Quail, once an exotic bird rarely available commercially, has become as commonplace as duck. Fresh or frozen quail is available in supermarkets and specialty food shops all the time now, and cookbooks routinely give recipes for its preparation.Today, the quail offered for sale are grown mainly on game farms.The birds are usually cleaned and partly deboned before they are shipped to market, ready to cook.The availability and ease of preparation of farm-raised quail are only two of the reasons for their popularity.

Controlled burning has begun to thin the dense underbrush, and state wildlife officials say Central Florida hunters should have two prime quail hunting locations in about three years.The sites, in the Ocala National Forest and the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area, are being manicured to provide maximum numbers of quail. It's the first time that public hunting lands in the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission's Central Region have been managed specifically for quail.And hunters who are too impatient to wait can flush a few coveys now, if they're persistent enough.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It was a quiet start for Tiger Woods – both inside and outside the ropes – as golf's No. 1 draw began his second tournament of his post-scandal days with a 2-over-par 74 at the Quail Hollow Championship. Tiger Woods opened with a birdie at Quail Hollow's par-5 10th hole, but gave it back two holes later when he couldn't save par after a poor approach shot at No. 12. He never got himself in the red numbers the rest of the day. "I didn't hit the ball very good at all today," Woods said after a round that left him nine shots behind leader Bo Van Pelt.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.— Bo Van Pelt came to his senses and finally reunited with a faithful putter. Kenny Perry broke up with his putter, but found his long-lost driver head. While most of Thursday's attention at the Quail Hollow Championship was centered on Tiger Woods' quest for normalcy and Phil Mickelson's health, Van Pelt and Perry relied on trusted friends in runs up the leaderboard. "I was like, ‘Wow, where has this been?' " said Perry, whose 6-under-par 66 left him one stroke behind Van Pelt after a birdie-friendly opening round.